Book of the Month: January 2013

Dreaming of Home by Michael Mitton (2012)

We need this book! It has inspiration and real brilliance, to lift us into a different way of thinking. Now, in an wildly unsettled world, perhaps more than ever, we long for home, for the place where we are loved and accepted – within God’s Kingdom.

At a time when the church is looking to the future, when it is evolving – about to discover the new ArchBishop’s thinking on both role and context: we are compelled to find a new way of looking at our place, our ‘home’ in this world as much as the next.

Starting expectantly to listen – at last – as if our lives depend on it: we might begin to find the way to answer Bonhoeffer’s question “Who am I?” as one of the ‘many voices and many visions’ leading the way into a healed future.

Pete Hughes’ Foreword states something we urgently need to rediscover: ‘authenticity’ in “making our Church a genuine home… for people… to heal, find life, find love, and find adventure…(this is) a critical message for the Church today: how to engage with … those spiritually searching for ‘home’.”

That longing for Michael Mitton’s ‘authenticity’ is “not just in the expectations of the unchurched, but among Church members themselves”. It is what enables acceptance of difference, without rejection: it is a sense of profound relationship, which comes from listening to people who hold very different views from ours. Church should never be a place of unchallenged ‘settling’ but a base camp for exploration and fresh encounter.

This is a book I shall delight in having on my shelf, in my hands, on my heart – and will want to give to other friends who can share a wide delight in this marvellously written book by a superb author.

Reviewed byLavender Buckland LLM

Published by BRF, “Everyday God” is normally priced £7.99. Mention “Sarum College Bookshop Website” to order a copy at the special price of £7.49 and POST FREE from Sarum College Bookshop until January 31st 2013.